From the popstar to the storm that has been ravaging the UK the past few days, Ciara has probably baffled a fair few of us by now.

As is the case with many names, there are multiple ways you can pronounce Ciara but only one way is being used by experts, like the Met Office, when speaking of the weather - the Irish way.

Ciara is, in fact, an Irish name and is pronounced ‘KEER-rah’ (kɪərə / KEER-ə).

If you were to look for an English equivalent, you'd find it by addressing actress Keira Knightley.

If you ever happen to meet a Ciara, it's worth noting that they can pronounce their name a number of ways - from kee-ar-ah, to see-ar-ah, and even see-er-ah.  The latter is the way one famous American popstar pronounces her name.

How are British storms named?

A storm in the UK is named using special criteria by the Met Office. This criteria is based on their National Severe Weather Warnings Service and a combination of both the impact the weather may have and the likelihood of those impacts occurring.

A storm will be named when it has the potential to cause an amber or red warning.

The Met Office says that naming storms "should aid the communication of approaching severe weather through media partners and other government agencies. In this way the public will be better placed to keep themselves, their property and businesses safe."

Can anyone suggest a storm name?

Earlier this year the Met Office and Met Éireann asked people to send in their ideas for future storm names, receiving thousands of suggestions.


The Met Office component will make use of suggestions submitted via social media and email, although everyone is welcome to suggest names for future consideration.

How is a name chosen?

Receiving thousands of suggestions every year, lists are compiled from these public suggestions, choosing some of the more popular names and names that reflect the diversity of Britain, Ireland and the Netherlands.

Storms alternate between male and female names as they go through the alphabet - one year a name beginning with A will be a female name, the next year it will be male, and so on.

Q, U, X, Y and Z have no storm names

The Met Office says: "To ensure we are in line with the US National Hurricane Centre naming conventions, we are not going to include names which begin with the letters Q, U, X, Y and Z.

"This will maintain consistency for official storm naming in the North Atlantic."

The list of 2019/20 storm names

Atiyah 06 December 2019 08 - 09 December 2019
Brendan 11 January 2020 13 - 14  January 2020
Ciara 05 February 2020 08 - 09 February 2020